Our Wright ancestor,
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Wright of Antioch received much of his medical training under the
guidance of Dr. David Marion Russell.
War Record of Dr. David Marion
Russell (1838-1916...Originally from South Carolina)
1861-1863 Various
battle sites in SC, NC, VA
***The following brief and interesting
account of Dr. Russell's service to the Confederacy was written by him for his
family:
In February,
1861, I volunteered for the defense of the state of South Carolina, my term of
enlistment being twelve months. I
assisted F. W. Kilpatrick in organizing a company known as the "Calhoun
Mountaineers". That company, of
which I was a member, elected the lamented Kilpatrick their Captain. It was assigned to the 4th S.C. Regiment,
whose Colonel was J. B. E. Sloan.
April 14th,
1861, we received orders to report for duty, with three days rations and two
blankets. We boarded the train at
Pendleton the next morning, expecting to go to Charleston, but as Fort Sumter
had surrendered we were stopped in Columbia.
In May following, the Confederate Government having been fully
organized, we transferred our allegiance from the state to the Confederate
States. Soon thereafter we were ordered
to Richmond, Va., and from there to Leesburg on the Potomac River. From there we were rushed down to the plains
of Manassas, where we received our first "baptism of blood".
In the
winter of 1862 (our terms of enlistment having expired,) all but a very few of
our company re-volunteered for three years of the war. All who re-volunteered of the 4th and 5th
S.C. Regiments were put together, and formed into a regiment known as the
"Palmetto Sharpshooters."
Miccah Jenkins was elected Colonel of the Regiment, Whit Kilpatrick
Captain, N.W. Harbin 1st Lieutenant, myself 2nd Lieutenant, R. L. Lewis, 3rd
Lieutenant of our Company.
I was in the
following big battles: 1st Manassas,
Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Gaines Mill and Frazier's Farm, besides quite a
number of skirmishes. In the last named
battle I was hit three times, twice on the head and once through the left
ankle. The balls that hit me on the head
tore my little old Confederate cap into shreds; the ball that went through my
ankle tore up both my shoes; a ball knocked my sword out of my hand and broke
off the point. I lay all night and till
late in the evening the next day, near the battlefield, without any shelter. When I at last was carried to hospital in
Richmond, I was as wet as a "drowned rat", as muddy as a hog, as
bloody as a butchered beef, and all the belongings I had was a shirt and one
pair of pants. You can imagine what sort
of "critter" I looked like.
During my
service in the army, I never reported sick, never missed a roll call, picket
duty or a fight until I was wounded.
While lying
up in Richmond nursing my wounds, I received my commission as Captain from the
Confederate War Department. That commission
read "for gallant and meritorious service on the battlefield,"
approved by Gen. Longstreet.
As soon as I
recovered sufficiently from my wounds to travel, I was given a sixty days
furlough. At the expiration of my
furlough I was examined by the medical board in Columbia, who pronounced me
permanently disabled and gave me an honorable discharge. In this they were mistaken. In less than a year thereafter I had
organized a company of crippled soldiers like myself and 16 years old boys to
guard the crossings on Tugalo River, picking up deserters, and running down bushwhackers. My headquarters was at Knox's bridge.
I forgot to
state at the proper place that in the election of officers in our Company I was
the only candidate that received every vote.
This I regarded as one of the highest compliments ever paid me.
***
Moving to Georgia
After 1865,
Georgia
After the
War Between the States, Dr. Russell moved his family to Polk County in a
covered wagon and first lived at Fish Creek, then settled in the Antioch
Community on a farm known as "The Russell Farm" which was later
purchased by Dr. Charles W. Peek. After
15 years, Dr. Russell moved to Cedartown with his wife and children.
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